Zuckertute/Schultüten: The First Day


Figure 1.--As best I understand it, poor German childeren had tout around their Zuckertüten all day long before they could get into it. For 6 year old kids that seems a form of torture. Here is a staged portrait at two boys getting into their Zuckertute. The boys were from Oschatz i/S.

There are countless portraits of German children with their Zuckertüten, wither individually or as class groups. Less clear is just how the Firsr Day proceeded. I didn't think that the boys actaully took the Zuckertüten to school, but German readers tell me that they did. Some photographs show that many children did so (figure 1). A German reader tells us, "Of course, every little student carries it proudly to school. We were not allowed to open them until we returned home after school. Oh, that waiting was hard." HBC is amazed that children that age carted their cones around all day long without opening them. I don't think that would work in America. This all seems quite a charming custom. Given the different finances of families, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century, there must havebeen children from families that could not afford these cones. Seems like that would be a little sad to have to go to school where all the other kids had cones. It would have not been so bad if this was all done at home, but the cones were brought to school. Given the age of the children, this must have been a very sad day for the children without cones. In todays prosperous Germany there are rarely families that can not afford these cones. A German reader writes, "Well, it is surly a question or what a family can afford. Maybe today families with less money give their children cheaper cones but in former times lots of families were so poor they couldn't afford any Schultüte."

School Day

I didn't think that the boys actaully took the Zuckertüten to school, but German readers tell me that they did. Some photographs show that many children did so (figure 1). As we understand how the first day with the cones worked, the children werr given them in the morning. I do not know if they were allowed to see them before the morning. The children then took them to school on their first day. And they had to go through the whole first day without getting into them. That must have been very frustrating for the children. But also their must hve been some children who didn't get cones or who got smaller cones That also must have left some children feeling bad.

Opening

We are not sure just when the children opened the cones and got into the goodies. We think many children did so after school on the way home. We know that some children did this. Weare not sure that they all did. Some children may have taken them home first before opening them. Hopefully our German readers will tell us more.







HBC-SU






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Created: 10:38 PM 6/7/2007
Last updated: 8:14 PM 4/22/2009